What is the specific role of social media?

The internet and social media provide young people with a range of benefits, and opportunities to empower themselves in a variety of ways. Young people can maintain social connections and support networks that otherwise wouldn't be possible, and can access more information than ever before. The communities and social interactions young people form online can be invaluable for bolstering and developing young people's self-confidence and social skills.

This will help you to:

• understand some of the benefits of internet and social media
• understand why technology is so attractive to young people
• understand the positive uses of social media and online spaces
• talk to young people about what they use technology for.

The use of social media and networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have become an integral part of Australians’ daily lives. While many associate social media with a degradation of young people’s social networks and communication skills, a literature review published by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre found that social networking services actually play a vital role for in young people’s lives - delivering educational outcomes; facilitating supportive relationships; identity formation; and, promoting a sense of belonging and self-esteem. Read the review here.

In collaboration with young people, we’ve documented some of the positive benefits of internet and social media for young people.

Young people as social participants and active citizens

Social networking services can provide an accessible and powerful toolkit for highlighting and acting on issues and causes that affect and interest young people. Social networking services can be used for organising activities, events, or groups to showcase issues and opinions and make a wider audience aware of them. E.g. Coordinating band activities, fundraisers, and creating awareness of various causes.

Young people developing a voice and building trust

Social networking services can be used to hone debating and discussion skills in a local, national or international context. This helps users develop public ways of presenting themselves. Personal skills are very important in this context: to make, develop and keep friendships, and to be regarded as a trusted connection within a network. Social networking services can provide young people with opportunities to learn how to function successfully in a community, navigating a public social space and developing social norms and skills as participants in peer groups.

Young people as content creators, managers and distributors

Social networking services rely on active participation: users take part in activities and discussions on a site, and upload, modify or create content. This supports creativity and can support discussion about ownership of content and data management.

Young people who use social networking services to showcase content - music, film, photography or writing - need to know what permissions they are giving the host service, so that they can make informed decisions about how and what they place on the site.

Users might also want to explore additional licensing options that may be available to them within services - for example Creative Commons licensing - to allow them to share their work with other people in a range of ways.

Young people as collaborators and team players

Social networking services are designed to support users working, thinking and acting together. They also require listening and compromising skills. Young people may need to ask others for help and advice in using services, or understand how platforms work by observing others, particularly in complex gaming or virtual environments. Once users have developed confidence in a new environment, they will also have gained the experience to help others.

Young people as explorers and learners

Social networks encourage discovery. If someone is interested in certain books, bands, recipes or ideas, it's likely that their interest will be catered for by a social networking service or group within a service. If users are looking for something more specific or unusual then they could create their own groups or social networking sites. Social networking services can help young people develop their interests and find other people who share the same interests. They can help introduce young people to new things and ideas, and deepen appreciation of existing interests. They can also help broaden users' horizons by helping them discover how other people live and think in all parts of the world.

Young people becoming independent and building resilience

Online spaces are social spaces, and social networking services offer similar opportunities to those of offline social spaces: places for young people to be with friends or to explore alone, building independence and developing the skills they need to recognise and manage risk, to learn to judge and evaluate situations, and to deal effectively with a world that can sometimes be dangerous or hostile. However, such skills can't be built in isolation, and are more likely to develop if supported. Going to a social networking service for the first time as a young person alone can be compared to a young person's first solo trip to a city centre, and thus it is important for a young person to know how to stay safe in this new environment.

Young people developing key and real world skills

Managing an online presence and being able to interact effectively online is becoming an increasingly important skill in the workplace. Being able to quickly adapt to new technologies, services and environments is already regarded as a highly valuable skill by employers, and can facilitate both formal and informal learning. Most services are text based, which encourages literacy skills, including interpretation, evaluation and contextualisation.

Social media is defined by its interactivity, connectedness, and user-generated content. In today’s society, the use of social media has become a necessary daily activity. Social media is typically used for social interaction and access to news and information, and decision making.  It is a valuable communication tool with others locally and worldwide, as well as to share, create, and spread information. Social media can influence consumer’s purchase decisions through reviews, marketing tactics and advertising. Essentially, social media vastly impacts our ability to communicate, form relationships, access and spread information, and to arrive at the best decision.

Perhaps the most influential social media tool is social networking sites.  Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, LinkedIn, and Google + are all familiar names to the large majority of society; active social media user or not.  Almost everyone from the ages of 13 to 64 has a Facebook account.  These social networking sites can be used to connect people worldwide.  This means that business meetings can be conducted internationally via Google Hangouts or old friends can reconnect.  For businesses, schools, and various other groups, the communication possibilities are endless.

These social networking sites have increasingly grown beyond personal use.  Recently, employers have begun using social networking sites to examine the background of their prospective candidates, as well as to host interviews via Facebook or other social media technology tools.  Groups can schedule virtual meetings or brainstorm together even when they can’t physically meet. This eases the scheduling pressures for school projects and board meetings.  It goes without saying that we as a society have a grown reliant and dependent on social networking sites.  Overall, we rely on social networks for connectivity and primary communication in today’s world.

One of the largest industries that social media has had an effect on is news and journalism.  Since, the internet is now the fastest and easiest way to get news, print media is diminishing and publications are being forced to post their articles online.  Another effect of this advanced technology is that virtually anyone can now deem themselves a “journalist” and produce news that they feel is accurate and credible.  Almost instantly we can create, share, and spread newsworthy or gossip stories across the globe. Social media has only made this easier.  Top news stories are being broken via Twitter and other social networking sites and people worldwide are made aware of them almost instantaneously.  The power of social media has allowed our society to be much more knowledgeable of worldwide affairs and news.

According to the Nielsen Social Media Report, active social media users have a higher likelihood of being influenced offline.  Social media is now beginning to impact its’ users’ decision making processes.  Reviews and blogs are posted constantly describing colleges, restaurants, products, companies, etc.  Some people have learned to rely on these reviews to make their decisions.  For example, Johns Hopkins University created “Hopkins Interactive” which is a social media site designed by current students for prospective students.  On this site, prospective students can see the unedited versions of students’ experiences at Hopkins.  Prospective students visit this site to get the behind the scenes look of the school and to determine if the school is right for them.

In addition, social media tools have become the new must have tool in the marketing world.  Digital and internet marketing are on the rise, and those with no presence on social media will slowly become extinct.  Entrepreneurs and small business owners are beginning to rely on social media sites to spread the word about their companies.  Internet marketing at this point is almost synonymous with social media because it is almost guaranteed to reach the largest audience and produce the greatest effects.  The future of the marketing world promises to be shaped by social media.

The possibilities are seemingly endless for social media.  It is uncommon for people to go a day without using or referring to social media.  Whether it is used for communicating, learning, or decision making, social media is here to stay and will continue to affect our society.